10 years in Skyrim
by The real SpamSite
Summary: Naruto, Bee and Yamato get lost in the world of Nirn, specifically Skyrim. Now they have to deal with a strange world, strange species, gods, magic, finding a way home and a coming war. Not to mention prepare for a war back home. They have arrived 9 years before the dragonborn would. Will anything stay the same?
1. Discovering Skyrim

After escaping from Killer Bee, Yamato and Naruto, Kisame stopped for a second to make a water clone before running away. While he was spying earlier, he heard Killer Bee say that the room they were in was made to contain a bijuu, so why not take advantage of that? The water clone closed the door before dispersing. Trapped in the room, the three tried everything they could think of to get out. None of their attacks could damage the gate, but the explosions from Bee's biju ball made a crack. The crack was not near the door, so the three decided to try tunneling their way out through the weak point.

"Damn, the crack is fixing itself!" Naruto yelled

"How can the door even withstand the attacks we used?" Asked Yamato while they were running toward the biggest part of the crack.

"When I was here before, I never closed the door. Ya fool. This aint' no room, It's a dimensional seal. Fo' real."

"What?" Asked a stressed out, glowing Naruto

"Bee, can you please stop rhyming. This is serious." Said Yamato "Ok, we're here. Let's break through this crack!" He said before growing a wooden beam from his arm and jamming it into the crack. Then he started widening it.

"Wait." Naruto said "What happens if we exit from somewhere the door isn't, but from a crack like this? Does being in a dimensional seal change anything?"

"I don't know fo' sho', but I'd guess we would just exit somewhere else."

"Oh, ok."

"I've made it wide enough to go through...there seems to be snow on the other side though. I'll go last."

"Right, do you think we're going to fall out in iron country?" Naruto asked "Never mind, I'm going in first!" He said and jumped through.

"Whee!"Killer bee mad a horn hand sign (think heavy metal concert), grabbed Yamato and jumped through the crack. It closed after him, crushing the wooden beam that was keeping it open.

The three landed knee deep in snow between mountains and the sea. To their left, there was a small seaside village and a large stone tower jutting out of the sea. Farther out there were many icebergs before the sea continued unbroken farther than the eye can see.

"What the hell? Brrr." Said Naruto

"This ain't my type of weather. We should leave, the sooner the better."

"I just wanted a goddamn vacation. ~Sigh~. Ok, Naruto, send some transformed clones in all directions for information." Naruto did so.

"Bee-san." "Yo." "How good are you at infiltration?" "I can sneak, stab and steal, but I cannot act fo' real." "Right." Yamato sighed again "That'll be my job then. Naruto, you're on scouting, Bee-san, please set up camp somewhere here."

That said the three split up to figure out where they are as soon as possible, so they could leave and inform the ninja alliance about Kisame's infiltration.

Killer Bee was feeling strange since coming to this place and it wasn't just the cold. So he visited his trusted partner Gyuuki. Gyuuki, however, was knocked out. Not injured in any way, just out of it, like someone cut his strings. Which explained Bee's unease. He set up camp from the sealed supplies all jounin and generally speaking intelligent ninja tended to have. He set up the tent between some of the icebergs. There was a small cave there. For a moment he wondered if he should have a few clones there for when the other two came by, but then remembered they are both sensors. Bee just went fishing then. On the way to the beach, he ran into a white bear.

Naruto was confused. He decided to use sage mode while the clones were sending him their memories. He also decided to hide. It was only common sense for the times you can't move. That's where things went weird. Using the stillness for sage mode he tried to draw in natural chakra but there was none. This confused him as there is at least some natural chakra you could find all over the world. Instead he found some other energy. Definitely not chakra, but he could draw some inside. It didn't mix with his chakra like nature chakra did. Naruto figured this made sense, as it wasn't chakra. When he tried to mix the two, he lost control of his chakra and the not-chakra left him. But not all of it. A little bit remained. He tried fiddling with it and managed to grab it with his chakra and draw it out. But that was more like flinging it out than using it in any meaningful way. Any further experimentation was cut short by his first popped clone here.

"AAAAAAH! Oh shit, ooohhh shit. That mountain is haunted by ghost ice snakes that fly! Fuck that mountain! So not going there..." then another did "Ok, to the right, there is a creepy town. Better not have any ghosts there... still, where the hell are we?"

Tenzo (Yamato) was having a bad day. The fourth war would soon be starting and the two biggest targets he was supposed to be keeping safe were lost with him. With the luck they were having so far, it was only a matter of minutes before Madara arrives with his whole army. With those cheery thoughts, he arrived at Winterhold.

'Can't read the sign. Great. Where the hell is this?' Tenzo spied at the place from a distance. He noticed a law enforcement of some sort, and very few people around. Some few were arguing at the entrance to the narrow bridge of the large tower structure. The whole place seemed to have suffered from some sort of attack or natural catastrophe. Ruined buildings made that much clear. After seeing enough he made a wood clone dressed in a combination of the furs the locals wore. The clone had a short walk through the village before turning in an alley and using shunshin to get back to the original. As he was not a shadow clone, he had to make a report.

"Uh..."

"Yes?" Tenzo said with a raised eyebrow. His clones did not usually behave like this.

"I couldn't understand their language, so I got out before anybody tried talking to me."

"You...what? WHAT?"

"Yeah. I don't get it either but wherever we are...I don't think getting back will be easy."

"..."

"I could try going back in, but invisible this time? My goal would be finding a map of some sort."

"... It feels wrong to steal from innocents, so report on it. We'll pay them back eventually. Besides that, keep an eye open."

"Hai" and with that the wood clone went in for round two.

Naruto's clone popped and he left his little hideout to meet Yamato on the way back. Since he couldn't use sage mode here, he couldn't sense where Bee made camp. Negative emotion sensing didn't work either, as Killer Bee was pretty cool. 'Not at all like an Uchiha. Damn those people had issues.'

"Yo, captain."

"Hey Naruto" Yamato looked drained

"What's got you down captain Yamato?"

"I'll tell you in a moment when we're all together."

With that the two walked down a sheer ice cliff to the camp. Inside a small cave they saw Bee had company.

"I made a new pal while I waited for 'yall." The white bear next to Bee roared half-assedly and continued munching on its fried fish.

Yamato made a strangled sob sound before double face palming.

"Hey man, don't frown. What's got you so down?"

"WE'RE LOST that's what." Yamato practically growled at the man. "I've seen the settlement to the left of the coast. They write and speak in a language I've never even heard of before. In a map I got, I don't recognize a single thing from the elemental nations and I've seen strange lights from that tower without even the slightest chakra pulse!"

Killer Bee seemed thoughtful for a moment before replying "On that note, I've got to say. Eight-oh is having a bad day. He's out like a light. Lost consciousness without a fight."

"Is it just me or is he getting better?"Naruto whispered behind a hand to Yamato. In return he got a growled out "No."

"Right, uh, I've also noticed some weird things. To the other side of the coast there is a creepy looking city. Built mostly from black stone. Much bigger than this village with the tower. Also there seem to be more than humans living there. At first I thought they were summons, but that seems off. They look like this."

With that said Naruto made a couple of clones that transformed into an Argonian and Dunmer.

"I have no idea what's up with that. Also the city has a port and beyond the city, it seems like the weather is improving. There were some farms and stuff. Over the mountains there are ghost flying ice snakes that creep me out, but some of my clones managed to kill a few. There was also some statue on a mountain top, but I don't recognize it. Some woman I guess. The weather made it difficult to see. Last, but not least, there is no nature chakra here."

""What?""

"Yeah, when I tried going into sage mode, I got something, but it wasn't chakra. I didn't really get the time to experiment with it, so I left a clone to do it before coming here."

"Now what?"

"Mrrrrgggggllll" the bear added his two cents.

"We figure out how to get home, ya fool."

* * *

After spending several days in their camp, it became obvious to the trio they were in another world. While they had a great many ideas for things to do here, the language barrier was stopping them from interacting properly with the locals. Any ninja worth the name knows that information is vital and that drawing attention to themselves while ignorant of the situation they are in is either a stupid idea or a desperate one. And they were not yet desperate.

Naruto was the one with the self appointed mission to learn the locals language. It seemed no one here could see through a transformation, so his clones transformed in various characters and listened in on conversations in bars and such. A few clones would play with the local children and try to learn the language from them. Yamato was teaching the original Naruto sealing since it was their best bet for figuring out a way home. Sadly he was only a journeyman in sealing as that was the required level for ANBU. They would have to figure the rest out somehow. Killer Bee spent a lot of time meditating and trying to wake up his partner Gyuuki. It did not help him with that but he managed to regain control of his transformation into a full tailed beast. Of course doing that outside was just asking to be spotted, so he went into the freezing cold waters to transform underwater. He did it slowly so that he didn't make too many waves. Both he and Yamato would occasionally go into the ancient city called Windhelm after Naruto taught them a few words to listen to the language themselves. And so the first week passed.

"Okay you two, our supplies are almost through. We have to find some more, or our ass is gonna be sore!"

"Right, while fish is good food, and I can grow some more, we really need some variety in our food. We should also check whether the local food besides fish suits us. Since we don't have any antidotes..."

"Have a clone do it?"

"Well...why not, but I was thinking you Naruto since you have great self healing abilities. You can go after the clones."

"But we don't have any money, all I can think of is seducing some honey."

"Bee, please...just no."

"I've got an idea about that. This morning a pair of carts went down the road from the city to the warmer areas and a clone of mine followed them from a distance. They were attacked by what seemed to be bandits. A few people died on both sides before one of the bandits did this weird kind of summoning and an ice thing appeared. Looked like a statue but it moved and everything. It killed the rest of the fighters and the last driver was shot with an arrow. Really weird techniques aside, I think we can take them. They didn't even notice my clone was there. He followed them and they are in a ruined old fort of some kind."

"Did you scout the place out?"

"No, I can do it while we're on the way there."

"So we have a mission. It's nice to be back in commission. I've been getting stir crazy here, let's show those bandits the meaning of fear. Though stealth sounds like a good idea till we know what they can do. Besides being all round awesome, I excel in fighting in the dark or when you need a spark!"

"Spark?" Naruto asked

"Lightning ya fool. Goes with my sword style."

"I suppose we should know these things about each other before going into a fight. I have my wood release, nearly all of my career was spent in Konoha's ANBU unit. Seeing the infamy of the wood release I had to learn to be very much a under the radar shinobi. Stealth will not be a problem. Also I am proficient with water and earth techniques."

"My turn? Well, Bee you might not know, but you're looking at Konoha's number one prankster. I painted the Hokage monument mountain in broad daylight without getting caught." Yamato groaned and face palmed "My specialty are my clones, the rasengan plus variations. I use the wind element, but don't know any techniques for it. My sage mode is currently out of order along with my summons, but I have the Kyuubi's chakra to use in a pinch."

"You can't use the Kyuubi's chakra outside emergencies Naruto. The last time you sprained your ankle because of poor control."

"I can later show you the ropes in tailed beast chakra control, but for now we gotta roll."

* * *

The trio packed their camp and left towards Morvunskar after a few hours they were close enough to see it. (AN: in case I wasn't clear so far, Skyrim is a lot bigger than the game. It was too much for the programmers to make the cities filled with thousands of people, despite this being the general idea. To that scale of a hundred times more, the rest of Skyrim is bigger. More wildlife and farms than extra places to have an adventure though.)

Morvunskar was a ruined fort that would only need a little work to be useful again. That made it a great hideout for all sorts of characters that frequently fought over ownership. Bandits, necromancers, warlocks, smugglers, poachers, daedra, giant spiders and some other wildlife frequently fought over ownership. Currently bandits were camping in here. While Naruto's clones were sneaking inside the fort, the original three have climbed a tower vertically bypassing the guard. In front of them they could see an argument. Despite not understanding the language it was obvious to them the bandits were arguing about whose the loot would be. A while later, most of Naruto's clones dispelled.

"Ok, I got the info. There's about three times the amount of people and other things in the fort as outside."

"Other things?"

"You know, the not-human people. Also there are a few cages with wolves."

"Any traps?" Asked Bee.

"Some, but they're amateurish. There was something written on the floor in one hallway. Since it looked like a seal, I left it alone."

"Did you leave any clones inside?"

"Yep, five of them."

"Good. Use them for alerting us if something happens inside that we should know about."

"Got it." he said and made and dispelled a clone so that the ones inside get the message.

"All right. Now that that's done, let's split up and deal with these bandits. I'll go around the fort and attack the four on the other side. One of you can have the five here, and the other can go and deal with the three archers on the walls."

"I'll take these fools in a flash. They'll be reduced to ash. Naruto, you can use your clones to break a few bones at the same time, so the fools on the walls don't have the chance to whine!"

"Right, I'll leave a clone with you for communication." Naruto said, made a pair of clones and ran down the wall with Yamato.

Naruto pressed himself against the wall so that none of the archers could see him sneak up on them. He heard them grumbling about something before making a dozen clones. Each took out a kunai and they climbed the wall. Those that were close to the targets took the chance to stab them in the back. Not a moment later, the three were thrown over the wall outside the fort. By the time Naruto climbed himself (he left a few clones to pick the pockets of the dead bandits) Killer Bee was true to his name. Only two bandits were still standing. One an orc with a green shield and sword dressed in furs, the other a warlock in black shooting lightning at Bee. Killer Bee seemed curious about the lightning, so he was just dodging. He had a burn on a shoulder, but nothing serious for a ninja, let alone a jinchuuriki.

One of Naruto's clones stabbed the orc from behind, killing him. The warlock seemed pissed and destroyed the clone with more lightning. Bee got bored and threw one of his swords through the warlock's head. Yamato jumped in from the other end of the ruin.

"Everything all right?"

"Yup!"

"It's fine yo, but that guy had some lightning show. That was no chakra lightning too. Trust me on that foo'. I've been hit by lightning techniques in training plenty of times. Some few outside of training because of my sweet rhymes."

"I believe you. Completely" Yamato deadpanned. Naruto just started laughing.

"This lightning feels natural, ya know." Bee continued as if he was not interrupted "After shooting it at me that guy had no control. It was faster than lighting techniques at the cost of control. I'm no chakra sensor, but I think he wasn't using any. Strong like a low B, rank technique."

"Hmm" Yamato mused "We have too little information. Best to just dodge and kill them from blind spots and such. For now at least."

"Dodging's easy, it flew straight." Naruto added.

"Right, what's going on inside?"

"None of my clones dispersed, so nothing's changed."

"In that case, have them do a little house cleaning. Start away from the doors so that we can sneak in without any fuss."

"Right." Naruto made around thirty clones of which one disappeared. "I figure they can be in front of us. They'll still try to be stealthy, but no need to depend on stealth."

Bee walked to the dead warlock and pulled out his short sword. "That's fine nine-oh, just be sure to leave a few here outside so we aren't caught off guard if someone drops by."

"Right, good idea." Naruto said and made fifty more. "Go find whatever might be useful, even if you're not sure. Others can keep guard."

With that the three went into the fort. In Yamato's mind it was as if the three of them were attacking genin. Some were capable, far more than bandits back home, but they had no teamwork, no strategy or tactic. Just keep attacking with everything they've got until they either win or die. Oddly enough none tried to run. Some of Naruto's clones deliberately stepped into traps, both the mechanical ones and the one that reminded them all of an exploding tag. In just twenty minutes they were done. They could have been done sooner, but deliberately let some bandits last as they were there for experience in dealing with the local form of combat. Naruto made another small army that found a great deal of resources in the keep. From gold they couldn't use at the moment to clothes and beddings that were fine after a wash.

After their raid on the bandits, the trio came back to the cold area they first set up camp in. Mostly this was so they could avoid dealing with people. No point letting anyone know about them. Naruto continued his various lessons and scouting, Killer Bee decided to learn blacksmithing and donated ink for sealing techniques. He could only work in Morvunskar where now a new group of outlaws took root. Before they did though, the trio managed to cave in the entrance to the room and add one through a hidden tunnel connected to the river. With Yamato's earth and water release techniques it was easy setting it up. Yamato himself was scouting far awayfrom their camp. He found a massive mountain a couple of days away. The area there had plenty of bandits that he regularly took out and robbed. What wildlife he found both amazed him and really sunk in the idea that they were in another world. He decided to avoid the animals and creatures for the time being.

They spent the next month like that before Naruto called them back together.

* * *

"Ok, I think I know enough of the language for now. I can hire one of the beggars with all the coin we collected to tech me the rest and not ask any questions. Of course I'll be using a transformation."

"That's grat news Naruto." Said Yamato.

"Yeah, and I was thinking we should all go to the lessons. In Windhelm there is a great deal of prejudice against everyone not a Nord. So I was thinking of learning from one of those Argonians. We ask and pay him or her to keep the lessons to him/herself and it becomes unlikely anyone will find out."

"Sounds good to me, I've had enough of those bandits."

"After this I'm getting lessons in smithing. My current work is... Well, let's not go there. Mostly I did it to keep myself from being bored to death." Bee sad "I'm all for it nine-oh."

Pajeen, their instructor was a little unnerved by the whole procedure of teaching three Nords how to speak and write. They clearly talked with one another if in a different language and knew Tamrielic to a small degree. But he was paid not to pry, so he would not. The lessons took place in different places, but usually in a rented room in some inn at night. It took the three about two and a half months to learn most of the language. Unlike other Nords who kept treating everyone not a Nord themselves in Windhelm like servants or worse, the three were fair. Very strange, especially the one that kept trying to rhyme, but fair. Pajeen didn't expect anything but the coin he got at the start. One thousand septims were more than generous of a payment for two and a half months work, but it seemed the three considered that only the first half! Pajeen decided to consider the whole thing a strange and fortunate situation he would do well to ignore. After all, being nosy was how Tilxi lost his tail.

Sometime through their lessons, several things became apparent to the three. First, they had no idea on how to get back to their world. Second, their situation was possibly not unique on this world seeing how several others were connected to it. The Oblivion crisis was the most obvious example of traveling between worlds yet far from the only one. If anything all of this only gave them ideas. Third, there were actual freaking gods in play here. Some measure of not pissing off any one of them would have to be implemented. Again it depended on information. Finally, the fourth revelation was the fact that they could learn to use these abilities. Naruto's fiddling with sage mode enabled him to learn the magelight spell by accident. Magic, alchemy, machinery left by the Dwemer, possibly dragon shouting and the creepy soul-using enchanting.

They agreed to split up with monthly meetings in Whiterun, specifically the Drunken Huntsman. For emergencies, they would have to improvise. Yamato would probably use his sensing abilities, Naruto his clones and Bee would...figure something out. Apparently being a guardian ninja does not translate to great tracking skills.

Naruto left for the College of Winterhold. To learn magic from the official sources. Mostly it was because Yamato intimidated him into doing it, since Naruto still had issues with being reckless. Yamato hoped official guidance would keep him from making a mess of things. Or at least help to survive the mess. Yamato would look into religious matters and the Graybeards. Bee went with his original idea of going to the bards college. He would teach them the wonders of rap, enka and enka rap. After that, he might go looking into the whole smithing business seriously.

* * *

***With Killer Bee.

' _Traveling to Solitude along the caravan trails is for civilians._ ' Bee thought as he decided to wander off to a mountain. ' _I'll have a better view from above anyway, might also get some inspiration for my rhymes._ ' His climb took him through a layer of mist, fighting against a troll and two ice wraiths. As per their now usual response, he sealed them away for the alchemical experimentation they were going to have Naruto do. Or more precisely Naruto's clones, who were under orders to write their procedures down and not repeat any procedure. Having a legion of grunts, even if they're a little dim, was really useful. Actually they were more reckless than dim, but whatever. Bee had to make a little detour for nature's call and continued. Once the snow he was standing on started crumbling and slipping away, he even tried avoiding snow. Not always possible on the mountains. It took him the most part of a day to reach his first mountain peak.

Once there he started writing down rhymes about the peak with fools who reek for a while. ' _Well_ ' he thought to himself ' _better start looking for a place to spend the night. Man, the view is amazing here. I gotta see the sunset from here. Shame all the clouds are blocking my view of the valley._ ' And so he watched the sunset only to give up finding a campsite in the dark as a bad job. ' _Whatever, with stars like these I don't want to sleep anyway. I'll sleep during the day and travel at night._ '

The rest of his trip was like that. Bee found that some creepy pale things sometimes crawl out at night to hunt and scavenge. Later he would learn that they are called Falmer or Snow Elves. Their tragic tale would make him write at least twenty pages of rhymes. Another interesting bunch he saw were vampires. ' _Yamato would kick their asses with his wood… That didn't sound as it should._ ' Some of the creatures and cursed humans were chunin level strength. None however had any real appreciation of strategy, very few tried stealth and his abilities always caught them off guard.

Bee traveled for two weeks before coming up to some kind of guard next to a decent sized house that was in front of a wooden wall and gate. No obstacle even to genin.

"Halt traveler. What business takes you to Morrowind?"

"Morrowhat? I'm going to Solitude." Bee could contain his rapping ways for a time. Usually he just didn't want to. He had less fun that way.

"..." the guard just stopped functioning for a few moments. Then he blinked a few times "Well you're going the wrong way. It's back the way you came from."

"...Shit."

* * *

***With Naruto

"Yo, my name's Uzumaki Naruto. I don't really know much about magic, but can I join anyway." Naruto was talking to the Altmer or High elf lady blocking the way to the college.

"Indeed? My name is Faralda. First, tell me why you wish to join the college."

"Well to learn about and how to use magic."

She scowled slightly "I do not recognize your accent, nevermind." She relaxed again "The college does have what you are looking for. Now I only need to see if you have the power and skill that we are looking for. Do you know the healing hands spell?"

"Uh, no. Only magelight."

"Once you know, show me. If it is good enough you can pass."

"But how am I supposed to learn it?" Naruto asked nervously, worrying about what he would do if they didn't let him in.

"If you'd like I can sell you the spell book for thirty septims."

"Sure, I'll take it." Naruto paid for the book and went to the only tavern in Winterhold. It took him a couple of days and the help of another Altmer mage who happened to be there by the name Nelacar. Now that he could do it he quickly went back and showed Faralda.

"Very well. It took you longer than I had hoped, but you pass."

"Thanks" Naruto said with a grin. He tilted his head in confusion before asking her "Hey Faralda, you don't always stay guard right? How come you were there exactly when I came."

She smiled "Of course not. One of the older enchantments of the tower lets us know when someone is coming. It helps us with guests and intruders alike. You'll find that the tower holds many things of great value. Since it's construction there were plenty reasons to fortify it from those who would steal from it or outright invade. But this isn't the time for a history lesson."

After that she showed him around the college and introduced him to everyone there. Naruto got a small but well equipped room to himself. There were no other apprentices in the tower at the moment, so he could find whatever teacher he wanted. Faralda recommended an old guy called Tolfdir.

* * *

***With Tenzo(Yamato)

While traveling to Whiterun for some general information about the nine divines and daedric princes beyond what they got from their language instructor, Tenzo sensed something. It happened at a place he had already passed through before, but now he was sensing something similar to his wood element. As curiosity got the best of him he followed his senses to a cave. It was close to a strange area that seemed to have some sort of natural hot springs. Tenzo stalked the entrance of the cave for a few hours before deciding to go in. As whatever he was sensing was affecting his wood release, he didn't want to risk not knowing about something that affected him like this.

Outside the cave the wilderness was remarkably beautiful, serene, surprisingly even completely untouched by people or other sentient races. Inside, Tenzo found hallowed ground. The whole cave was teeming with life and felt sacred to him. As the consummate professional he was, Tenzo didn't drop his guard. There was too much he didn't know about this world to let himself relax so easily. But just by looking around, all he could see were a few pilgrims. He decided to talk to one of them.

"Excuse me!" Tenzo said to one pilgrim that was preparing for a picnic.

"Yes?"

"I'm new here and I was wondering what this place is. Could you please tell me?"

"You mean you don't know? How did you even wind up here then?"

"Just by exploring. Even the area around this cave stands out somewhat."

"Aye, I suppose it does. Well, sure I'll tell ya about Eldergleam sanctuary. That's the name of this cave by the way. It got the name from that magnificent tree over there. The Eldergleam It was a gift from Kynareth herself to us..."

The man rambled on for a while, but Tenzo got the idea that the strange tree was the source of the feeling he got. It was also related to a goddess somehow. After the first five minutes it became difficult to pay attention to the rambling old fanatic, let alone tell the difference from his beliefs, actual information and genuine tales and legends.

Tenzo later couldn't really pinpoint why he thought touching the strange tree was a good idea, yet he did. As soon as he touched a root of the tree, some energy went right up his arm. Freaked out, he ran away till he couldn't feel any of it anymore. The energy dissipated inside him and his tests showed no problems with his health or abilities. In fact, using wood based techniques was a bit easier than before.

But just because it was easier didn't mean he would go back! No self respecting ANBU would fall for a mousetrap like that. Long term testing was required, and more information. Always more information. It's a pity these people + other sentient beings didn't have wood users that could try it themselves.

One foggy Tuesday the three met in the Drunken Huntsman. Slightly drunk before the other two even arrived, Bee was complaining to the two.

"Those fuckers at the gate wouldn't let me in! I think it's because of the color of my skin! Almost did the stupid one in."

"Hello Bee. It seems that unlike the villages, cities need us to have some sort of identification. You remember how Pajeen thought I was an imperial, you a redguard and Naruto a nord that one time we let him see our clones? Since then it seems no one asked Naruto anything about identification, and thank these gods for that small mercy, but as you and I are not recognized as locals, everyone is more suspicious of us."

"So why don't you two sneak in?" Naruto asked.

""We did.""

"Oh."

"Anyway, I've had some strange encounters so far, but I've reached Ivarstead and been living there as hired help for a while. I'm thinking about joining the graybeards."

"Oh! I've heard of them! The old people that shout at everyone!"

"No Naruto." Tenzo answered with a sigh and while ignoring Bee's chuckling he continued "They are capable of using some shouting based power, but they are actually not shouting at anyone! Kind of like monks. And while I'm interested in the shout-based power, I'm more interested in the knowledge they have. From what I've gathered, anyone can leave them, they just have to deal with the shame. Also no one would trust an oath breaker, and without trust in this land you only have the option of living like a criminal. Luckily I have the transformation technique! I'll just be using the appearance of a bandit I killed recently. Now, I can tell you about what else I've found out later. What happened with you two."

"Ok, I joined the college! It was tough learning that magic thing cause it's so different than chakra and with so many people around me I couldn't use clones. My clones can use magic easily by the way. Oh! That reminds me. I got a couple of books for you two. Basic magical theory and a few spells I had my clones copy. Plus I can heal wounds now! Isn't that awesome! I have a few clones practicing with spells and reading books all the time now. Most of the ones practicing go to abandoned places like the icebergs outside the College. There they can blow themselves up without problems."

"So, your magical education is going well?"

"Yeah, well I'm still a Novice at everything, but I feel like learning to use magic is easier now. Most of my clones that blow up are the ones trying to combine chakra and magic. I had some success with that. One clone made a magic based rasengan. It blew him up when he got excited, but for a second it worked. Not sure how good it is compared to the original. Oh, and there are magical barriers to places I'm not allowed to go to yet. They tend to destroy the clones."

"That all sounds good Naruto, and thanks for the books."

"Yeah." Bee grinned and gave Naruto a fist bump.

"What about you Bee?" asked Tenzo

"Been learning the lay of the land man. I'm fine, but not according to plan."

"What?"

"...I...uh...got lost."

"Bwahahahah!" Naruto nearly fell off his chair with how hard he was laughing and even Tenzo had to suppress a snort.

Killer bee didn't have much to share besides the kind of dangers he found around the land. He also marked a few interesting spots on their maps like the caves the Falmer could be found in. Once Tenzo was finished with histale, Bee left to sell the spoils of his wandering. Naruto and Tenzo wasted some time wandering the city while they waited for him to finish before all three finally left. Bee followed the road this time, Tenzo went directly towards the mountain, and Naruto let loose his clones to look for alchemy ingredients while slowly going back to the Colledge.


	2. On the edge of politics

Killer Bee had _finally_ arrived. Solitude was an impressive looking city that inspired him to write a few rhymes. A guard asked him what he was writing about before directing him to the Bards Collegue.

"Welcome good sir to the center of Skyrim's culture and entertainment. My name is Viarmo. How can I assist you today?"

"I'd like to join." Bee said.

"Of course, of course. We accept all newcomers. In fact, since the recent war I feel we need a great deal more bards around to collect the new tales of what happened and properly preserve them for future generations."

~three days later~

"GET OUT!" yelled a rage driven Viarmo whose spittle was flying from his frothing mouth.

"Aw, c'mon."

"NO, we will be having no more of your nonsense here sir! Get out and don't come back!"

Bee decided he really should go before they called the guard and he was forced to defend himself. Neither of his fellow misplaced ninja wanted to let their abilities be known. Not to mention Viarmo already slammed the door in his face. He took off toward the legion's blacksmith muttering about fools who wouldn't recognize talent if it started slapping them in the face. Smithing would kill a few days, and hopefully Bee could learn enough to really know how to do it by himself. The blacksmith turned out to be a reasonable fellow. He had run out of stocked weapons and armor during the war against the Aldmeri dominion. As if that wasn't enough, he recently recovered from a fever that left him feeling weak. Bee, being the big man he is seemed like heaven sent to the blacksmith. Even though he could have done without Bee's eccentricities.

The two quickly made a deal. Bee would do manual labor in exchange for blacksmithing lessons. At first Bee's duties included carrying the ore, ingots, logs and so on. Once he had to start hammering the metal, the blacksmith was there with him telling him how to do it, even praising Bee's resilience. Two days later he had enough confidence in leaving Bee alone during some of the more routine tasks. He even advised Bee to try out things so he could learn by trial and error as some simple things required no real instruction. In no time at all Bee was spending all of the poor man's iron ore on hundreds of iron daggers. His later attempts of explaining the concept of thrown knives was lost on the livid blacksmith, but he did manage to stay employed. Only now he would have a weekly quota on how much of the man's resources he could use.

After that, Bee could be seen (figuratively speaking) mining a nearby mountaintop in the middle of the night. He chose it on a gut feeling. The noise alone made people want to strangle him for keeping them awake, but what got him a wanted poster (even though nobody knew it was him as no one saw him at night, on the mountainside where Bee was barely restraining himself from rapping) were the three avalanches he caused. Between those activities he would practice this world's magic with the magic books Naruto got him. Both him and Yamato had much greater difficulty acclimating themselves to the magic because they couldn't just absorb mana into themselves like Naruto did with sage mode. Yamato once mentioned he thought eating the local food is the only thing making it possible for the two to use magic at all. Still, their mana reserves were growing still didn't find any ore and had to rap in public from high places to get rid of his stress. The people of Solitude as a whole were very much on the edge of snapping.

* * *

By the time Naruto made it to Winterhold there was three hundred of him. All of his clones looked different, but their sheer numbers still alarmed the guards into meeting them armed by the city's entrance. Once that situation was diffused (the clones ran and hid leaving the guards jumpy for weeks), Naruto went back to the college alone. His clones spread out doing whatever they thought was a good idea. A good half tried everything they could think of with the ingredients he got, but ran out before trying anything really creative. Some decided to practice sealing, a few wandered around and three found Saarthal. At the time Saarthal was fully hidden beneath the snow, but a clone got the idea that some alchemical ingredients could be hidden beneath the snow. So they made an ice tunnel by melting the snow where it got in the way and refreezing it for supports in their man made cave. Both done by the new fire and ice spells he learned. By sheer dumb luck they ran straight into the Saarthal entrance. They couldn't open the door though. Blowing it up might cave in everything else, so they just got out, figured where they were and collapsed the ice tunnel. The original Naruto got the message. He would need to learn how to pick locks.

A few days later another clone found another such place near the coast between Winterhold and Windhelm, except this one was already open. He went inside exploring and reached the end of a dramatic speech form a black leather dressed human saying how the skeleton key was capable of opening anything. Even a person's potential. Naruto's clone ignored the gloating derisive comments and the response warnings of a curse on some guild. Then the three people there started killing each other. The clone jumped in, but they all turned on him quickly and he jumped away before letting any of them know about clones and their vulnerability. One large area spell was enough to destroy any number of clones caught in it so he didn't want to risk letting any of his abilities be known. Because he was in disguise there the three didn't know his real appearance. Sadly the clone didn't have enough chakra to make another clone, so he just hid and popped himself. This alerted the original Naruto. Naruto then shut his alteration book with slightly more force than necessary and took off to the site. He was excited about the key. If it could open anything, then it might be their way home.

By the time he reached it, he found the dark elf female carrying a corpse and swearing revenge. He soon decided to have a clone keep watch on them in case he was wrong, but it seemed to him that the other guy had the key. Tracking the other guy was a bit time consuming, but he finally caught up just past Kynesgrove. Mercer Fray, as he would later learn the man was called, was seemingly tired, but he still noticed a Naruto clone. The real one was a little farther away. Mercer's response surprised Naruto a bit. There was no discussion between them, he just attacked. Naruto's clone was faster, so he kept dodging and jumping away, but Mercer used a spell to make himself invisible. Naruto was still not the best when it came to blind fighting so his clone stuck to dodging wildly and throwing low level spells everywhere.

"I don't know what your name is or who is behind you but you are a dead man. Nothing personal I hope you understand. It's just, now that you know the secret of the skeleton key I have to tie up my loose ends, no matter how much you try to dodge I will get you and then I'll make you tell me who sent you, or you could die slowly and painfully. Your choice really." The invisible Mercer Fray said. As soon as he said that he reappeared holding a bow, with an arrow flying into the clone's head.

Naruto considered trying to swarm him with clones for a moment before changing his mind. He went into his tailed beast mode in an instant. Frey's negative emotions were extremely obvious. The man was as twisted as most Uchiha. So Naruto just ran to him and tried knocking him out. From Bee's lessons on controlling his tailed beast form Naruto's control was much better than before, but Mercer tried moving at the same time he sensed danger thanks to the key. Naruto's fist caught Mercer's left eye before he had fully slowed down. The result was gruesome. Not only had Mercer lost the eye, but his head had slightly caved in, in the shape of his fist. Mercer fell like a puppet that had it's strings cut. Naruto stopped using chakra and just stood looking over the crippled man for a moment in indecision.

This was just a situation where Naruto had heard about something cool that might have helped the three ninja return home. After all their first possible, tangible clue in months he became impatient. He never wanted to kill this guy, even if he was a bastard. Though he still wasn't dead Naruto quickly finished him. Otherwise the man would wake up a cripple with probable brain damage, only for his enemies to catch up to him. Not a pretty way to go and a guy like this definitely had enemies, even without counting the Dunmer woman crying back in the ruins they fought in earlier. All of this really drove home the fact that he needed to practice control. In all that he did. Naruto was still a ninja so despite his upset emotions he looted the man before leaving. At least he had a way into that Saarthal place.

While Naruto was regretting his recklessness and promising to himself that he would not be so hasty and careless in the future, Tenzo had been accepted among the Graybeards as a new pupil. Most of the time he practiced with the only master there that could talk without shouting, Angier. Apparently while trying to learn dragon shouts they had somehow lost the ability to speak plainly. The power of the shouts was theirs but they still hadn't mastered it, leaving them without the proper control. It was a well documented phenomenon that Angier showed him in a few books.

Tenzo was going by the name Bronn while in the monastery. He was currently cleaning the basement since someone had to do it and in true human nature, they gave him, the fucking new guy, that particular honor. The basement was split evenly between storage for food and other necessities and a library containing the accumulated knowledge of the Graybeards during their long existence. Unlike how most people would be, he was grateful for the job. Not only were his wooden clones both cleaning and copying the books for Naruto and Bee, but he was also having a break from being under a transformation technique constantly.

It wasn't very draining, but it becomes a strain on his concentration after a while, more of an irritation really. The Graybeards certainly weren't helping with that by testing his mental capacity and trying to teach him a inhuman language at the same time. Their beliefs, while noble, were naive. Tenzo didn't have any problems learning their philosophy aside from considering it a waste of time. Being a part of an infiltration mission before he knew that a great deal of time would be wasted simply fitting in. Among the Graybeards this was philosophical debate. Well, debate might be a bit far. They were only willing to debate something as long as it fit nicely in their philosophy. Any attitude outside it made them clam up and refuse to cooperate until "you see the error of your ways". In typical old man fashion they were completely unwilling to question their own beliefs.

Luckily Tenzo didn't have to discover this by himself as he was not the only pupil at the monastery. Aside from him a young Nord man called Ulfric was there. In fact he had arrived only days before Tenzo. The Graybeards considered him to have the greater potential of the two since he is younger so they focused more on teaching him. Not a problem for Tenzo to have less scrutiny on himself.

Ulfric was a war prisoner until the White-Gold concordant (some sort of skewed peace treaty) so he was left with a great deal of rage toward the Thalmor. It was this rage that was getting in the way of him accepting the Graybeards way of life. To Tenzo it was clear as day that their methods of "Letting go of your anger" weren't making him any less angry. It was just less often on the surface.

All that together very much reminded him of Sasuke and the council. While Ulfric wasn't anywhere near as insane as that boy had become, Tenzo just couldn't see any of this ending well so he decided to keep his distance. The Graybeards saw this as jealous behavior so they assigned Tenzo more chores so that he can keep his mind occupied when he was not learning.

He didn't mind. In fact dealing with the maintenance details of the building gave him the idea of building a hideout of his own in the mountain. Wooden buildings that suddenly sprouted over night would be suspicious, so he chose a spot on the mountain's side that was difficult to see from any of the paths but not below. Luckily the height of the place made the entrance he dug look like a speck of dirt from below and apart from sailors no one here was in the habit of carrying telescopes. ANBU security genjutsu would keep the entrance hidden from any casual observer once he makes them. It was actually a seal, but one that kept up a near permanent genjutsu. It needed to be filled every three weeks or so, but as he was stuck here for the time being, that wasn't a problem.

He had suspicions that clones wouldn't be able to use shouts since they are connected to the soul. So leaving his clone here wouldn't be possible at any time but now that he still had to learn any shouts. He would have to tell Bee to learn about the deities since he himself now couldn't move around freely. Any information the Graybeards might have could be as biased as the men themselves. Still worth learning, but not good enough to rely upon. Tenzo left a wooden clone behind as he got going for the last meeting of the three stranded ninja he would personally participate in a while.

* * *

"Hey there captain Yamato! Me'n Bee thought we could have a meeting somewhere else since there seem to be people trying to spy on us at the Huntsman." A Naruto clone greeted him just before entering the city.

"Ok, that sounds like a good idea… What do we know of the would-be spies?"

"Uh, not much. Some civilians and two guards in full uniform are badly trying to be inconspicuous."

"Well, send a few clones to see what you can find out."

"Will do captain!" Clone Naruto saluted him before popping himself. Yamato was left there with no idea of where to find the other two. His stoic expression was marred by the slightly twitching and a growing migraine from Naruto's thoughtless clones. He could have looked for them with his sensing abilities but decided not to. It's a matter of both principle and getting Naruto to stop being scatterbrained.

Soon enough another clone showed up sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Heh heh, sorry about that captain." The clone said before meeting Yamato's scary face and blanching.

"Narutooooooo, while you are on a mission I expect you to act like it. Someone could have seen us! As penalty I'm assigning you some dull reading and I will be testing you on it!"

The clone managed to look both relieved and dismayed at the same time. He led Yamato to the Honningbrew meadary where Bee and the original Naruto were waiting before dispelling himself just outside it.

Yamato walked in hearing "…ooks ttebayo!" from Naruto and a chuckle from Bee. He ordered a simple mead from the slimy owner who was trying to sell his most expensive mead to them before sitting down with the two.

"Hello."

"Hey."

"Sup."/

"Any emergencies?" Yamato asked "No" "Nah"

"Then I'll start. I'm currently an apprentice of the Graybeards under the pseudonym Bronn. This greatly complicates my visiting here so I'll have to send clones for as long as I'm there." "Got it" "Ok"

"Good, also, Bee will have to tackle the Aedra and Daedra knowledge we're lacking. While the Graybeards have some knowledge lying around they're not an unbiased source of information."

"No problem ya fool, it'll be just like school!"

"Were you good at school Bee?" Naruto innocently asked while Bee grew completely stiff and started sweating a bit.

"'Course!" He croaked. Completely failing to convince either of the ninja he was talking to.

Yamato sweat dropped and resolved to have a few clones wander about looking for answers. "Other than that," he continued "I've just been learning about the shouts. I made some notes on the stuff if you want to learn it yourself." He gave a scroll to each and asked "That's it from me. Who's next?"

"I guess I'll go." Nartuo said without his usual excitement "I-I killed a guy. I didn't want to, he was just a better fighter than most so I decided to take him more seriously. He reacted even to my tailed beast mode speed. That's actually what killed him. He moved and I didn't adjust fast enough so I killed him." He finished with a slightly subdued tone. Despite his years as a ninja Naruto had managed to avoid the disturbing missions where Danzo's ninja performed best. All those he killed were killed so he could protect someone from them leaving him without guilt. Yamato and Bee noticed the conflicted state of his mind easily.

"Naruto you cannot control the flow of every fight. Especially since we are in another world there will always be plenty of surprises around for us." Yamato said

"But I was stronger than him!" Naruto almost yelled in his frustration "I should have been able to control the fight!"

"It's not the stronger fighters that always control the flow of the fight. In fact it is often the smarter ones."

He's right ya know, don't underestimate the flow. Instead use this as a reason to grow, it's ok to start off slow when ya glow. I'll show you the ins and outs of your glowing visage till you can use it to give old people a massage!"

"Ugh, why would I give old people a massage?"

"To let you know you've mastered being delicate! If they go splat, you still need to work on that."

"Maybe you should practice on something else" Yamato said feeling slightly disturbed by the image "like rocks or snow, there's plenty of that here…"

"Right, anyway Naruto, whenever you're going at your full speed you will have less control of yourself. It doesn't matter if you're the world's fastest or slowest man, that never changes. My bro had issues with his speed when he started learning his lightning cloak but practicing moving fast and slow got him to adjust to his new speed well enough."

"Thanks Bee, Yamato." Naruto said with a small smile. "Anyway, this is the reason I've fought the guy in the first place." He said and drew a strange looking key from his pocket "He called it the skeleton key. Supposedly it is capable of opening everything, even a person's potential! I've been using it while studying magic and I'm much better at it now so that much's certain. Though I needed to use it for every branch of magic separately, I only needed to use it once, like now that my potential's open, it isn't closing again. Honestly it makes me scared a little that someone could use something like this and maybe open the seal of any jinchuuriki."

Yamato and Bee were properly awed by Naruto's discovery. Then Yamato asked " Have you tried using this key for anything aside from magic?"

"Well uh, a few locks... I'm planning on using it on this ruin I found buried under the snow."

"That's all fine and good Naruto, but if it can do something as abstract as unlocking potential, maybe we should test its limits. Try locking something with it. Most keys can do both, so maybe this will be useful. Imagine locking someone's desire to harm others."

As the full implications of the key became clear to all of them, Naruto tested it by locking his appreciation for mead. The next sip was horrible so he immediately unlocked it. After that the taste was on par with ramen.

"So" Yamato said after Naruto calmed down and explained his little experiment "It can only go in the extremes. No slightly unlocked things. That just means you need to be careful. Now you're stuck with a love hate relationship with mead. Which isn't that rare oddly enough, but if you don't want that anymore be careful with the key. Also we should totally unlock all of our potential for good health and individual combat skills."

"Why not just all of our combat potential?"

"See, Naruto that's what I mean by 'be careful'. You could easily unlock the Kyuubi like that, not to mention possible anger, rage, desire to destroy and who knows how much more with vague attempts like that. Always be precise. That key is too dangerous for anything else. Honestly it reminds me a little of what I've heard higher level sealing to be like."

Once they had all unlocked their potential for all sorts of things, from appreciation for healthy vegetables and dragon shouting to mining and tracking (Bee was forbidden to use it for his rap, but he didn't mind seeing as he already thought himself a genius.), Bee started his own input.

"The college was a waste of time as they didn't appreciate my rhyme. Nor did they have any of the books about gods ya wanted Yamato. Only some history and legends, but that's open for anyone." He took a sip before continuing.

"Now I'm smithin' my days away, but don't think it it's all play. The war that recently happened left the army broken and the Thalmor are building an embassy near the city. Don't know what they're planning but they're raising the tension till it could be cut. All the people there are clearly mad and that makes the Thalmor glad. I think there will be another war soon."

"Great, more war. Just what we needed." Naruto spat.

Yamato let the other two chat about inane things like mudcrab recipes while thinking carefully about the situation they're in. It seemed to him that even with Naruto's key they were a long way away from figuring out a way home, let alone creating or testing it.

"I'm thinking of creating a base for us." Yamato interrupted Bee's rap about dwarven metal.

"Huh? Why?"

"If a war is really coming, it will be beneficial to us to have a place to restock, hide and so on."

"Makes sense, but make it hidden somewhere, just so fools don't stare."

"Why one?" Naruto asked and the other two turned to him."What? Having more bases is better than one. You never know where we could be when we need to use one."

"Good point Naruto" Yamato said with a smile "However, both I and my clones will be limited for the time being since I am going to be stuck on that mountain. In fact I already had the idea of making a place there."

"Yo, we can make the entrance need chakra to get in so it's a pain for infiltratin'."

"Right, I already put some illusion seals on the entrance and it's on a vertical part of the mountain."

"Ok, this sounds fun so I'll ask around for magic for building places."

"Hmm, I could start a mining company… If we find ore, great, if not then we made a hole for where we can later place a base." Bee said.

"You're sure could find people to work like that? Dig on a guess?" Yamato asked

"Sure, after the war there's plenty of people looking for a new job or even way to live. So long as they'll dig I have money to give. I've got some money from my blacksmithing, but the bounties are where the real money is. Shouldn't be a problem for us so long as you join in the biz."

There were a few moments of silence as they all thought about this before Yamato broke the silence by saying "All right, I'm all for this." Bee grinned and offered a fist to bump for both Naruto and Yamato. Which they did.

"Now we just have to decide where to meet next time. As nice as the mead here is, it's not really a great place for this." Yamato said

"We could just find you up that mountain. See what you've built? Lend you a hand?" Naruto said.

"No, better keep that only for emergencies. The Graybeards are a stubborn lot with abilities I'm not yet fully familiar. If they found us before I'm done with them they could be problematic. Ivarstead has a tavern we could use. We'll be there till the spies find that place out as well. Then we'll see."

"Right then, before leaving I'll be here chillin'. Might have me a look see about any bounties 'round Whiterun."

"Ok, I'm going to have a look around that ruin Saarthal."

Yamato sighed before adding "And back to studying with religious old people for me."

* * *

Naruto and Bee had gotten together for two days of training his tailed beast mode before returning. While Naruto made some more progress on controlling his own speed and power by going through an obstacle course (made mostly of clones so it was always changing) he didn't master any of it yet. Bee had explained to him the training process so he could do it on his own later and even told him how the first stage of lightning chakra transformation training went (creating a spark between fingers, then get creative by doing with handseals and kunai and so on). Naruto in return explained healing hands and a basic ward spell. After that they split up.

While Bee was chillin' in Whiterun's jail for pissing off the jarl, Naruto returned to the College. He had apparently missed some big shot named Septimus Signus. Not that it meant anything to him, but the guy was well known here and had recently passed by. Ignoring the whole thing, Naruto made a few clones stick around the College of Winterhold just so he can have an alibi. Being gone too often makes people ask too many questions. So far Naruto told them all the half truth that he felt too confined in there all the time and the people bought it.

Having his diversion clones work at alchemy he set off to Saarthal. Finding it again was a bit troublesome because the snow shifted but he managed. The door was no match for the skeleton key, even if it took him a good while to make it through the lock. On the inside he was not surprised to find the place a ruin. There were some cave-ins but not enough to block passage to a ninja. Naruto let loose a moderate amount of clones (too many might start a fight among themselves and set off another cave in) to look for anything interesting. Any money they could get from this would go towards preparing for war. And if he was honest with himself, building hidden bases was really cool.

It almost seemed like no time at all had passed before one clone managed to get himself trapped. A set of iron bars blocked the way as soon as he took a necklace off a wall. There was no pressure trigger so the clone suspected it was activated by magic. Since he was learning magic he hadn't even heard of anything like this so Naruto got very interested in it. The clone was experimenting with how it was done when the original came there.

"So, what did ya find out?" He asked his clone

"Well, when I put the necklace on, there's a connection between the necklace and wall, but any other time it can't be seen. In sage mode…or should we call it mage mode now? Anyway with it I can still feel the connection though."

There were at least thirty Naruto clones giving ideas to the trapped one beside the original when he cast a magelight spell at the wall and it crumbled. Not wanting to deal with the original's ire, the clone popped himself. Naruto rubbed his temples to calm down now that he no longer had anyone to yell at. Then he ordered the clones to collect the rubble and seal it so he could take it to the College and ask people about it as the bars had conveniently lifted once the wall was broken. After that he sent some clones into the newly opened tunnel.

In a world where the expedition to Saarthal was widely known the Psijic Order could have prepared for it and have sent someone to keep an eye on the developments there. Not so now. Naruto found legions of undead (that creeped him out, but not as much as ghosts since you could still destroy them) and plenty of loot. In and of itself the loot would have made the trip worthwhile. But, at the end of the path he found a giant floating blue orb. It kind of reminded him of the rasengan with it being blue and glowing and floating and spinning. Oh, there was an invulnerable zombie there too, but he had a few clones stuff him in a vase. It didn't last, but the original managed to shoot enough chakra and mana into the floating orb for the zombie to lose his invulnerability. He was then quickly killed.

While Naruto was trying and failing to figure out the orb, his clones found a note and necklace worth investigating. Sealing them away for later, the original got annoyed and sealed the orb away. He even destroyed the floor below that strange bit holding the orb up and sealed that too. Farther along the way there was a wall with foreign language written on it. To Naruto it all looked like a great deal of scratches, so he gave up on trying to understand it right then and there. Instead he copied it on a scroll he had. All the practice for sealing techniques he was working on made him very accurate.

Back in Winterhold he sold most of his loot to the others in the College and started working on the necklace and wall connection with Tolfdir (the ones that were hiding a large part of Saarthal). As for the matter of construction magic, mostly it involved warding a location, but he learned the telekinesis spell as well. Apart from that Urag gro-Shub, the menacing librarian pointed out a lot of legends for him to read about. Most of them would be useless, but there might be some interesting ones he could try to track down. Examples include the Labyrinthian, some dwemer artifacts laying forgotten or protected underground, legends of snow elves, some standing stones of Solstheim, potion locked doors, and so on.

His clones that were dispelled at this time and he remembered them following the would-be spies in Whiterun. The guards were predictably sent by the jarl who was curious about what is going on in his city. On the other hand the civilians were payed by the thalmor to spy on them. The very same thalmor that were building a embassy near solitude. Since Yamato was stuck in the monastery and Bee not a good choice for spying, Naruto resolved to get to the bottom of that himself. He even had a decent plan.

Seals for listening in were fairly common in the ninja world, but they could be discovered easily as well. Mostly this was so because of how common they were so people created counters for them. Aside from some exotic seals made to work around the counters, this meant that listening in seals couldn't be used everywhere. ANBU still learned them since they were useful even then, so Yamato would know how to make them. While learning all he could about magic, alchemy and everything else this world offered Naruto had fallen behind in his ninja skills. This would simply not do. Once they came back from here to their home, they would be back among people capable of fighting on a much higher level. That meant they had to use this chance to get better, not get rusty. Resolving to get serious about his ninja skills Naruto spent some time sparring with his clones. He would try talking Bee into some sparring as well. He never really noticed how learning all that he was trying to learn was coming much easier to him since unlocking his potential.

Before meeting Yamato and Bee again, Naruto also took a few bounty hunting jobs while his clones were determined to figure out the collapsing door and necklace combo from Saarthal. It was either that or training sealing, and sealing was a lot more stale with the great amount of writing they had to do./span/p


	3. Bee's misadventure

Bee was feeling down. He just wasn't feeling very productive. Naruto already found something that might be their ticket to getting home, not to mention he was far behind the kid on learning magic, or Yamato on that strange dragon language and general knowledge. So to fix his mood he had some fun in Whiterun at the jarl's expense. The man didn't take rapping off the top of his house/castle well. In fact he tossed him in jail. It was there Bee heard about a dwemer expedition. Well, about a robbery of a successful expedition, but it was the expedition he was interested in.

Once they let him go because he didn't really harm anyone, plus he started rapping in jail (they threw him out before his sentence was over, for the first time in known history in all of Tamriel), Bee started asking around about the dwemer. To his surprise, even after they had been gone for so long, people were still finding new dwemer ruins filled with all sorts of useful stuff. They were certainly worth investigating. He might even find something useful for the way back home there. As far as building the bases is concerned, he would certainly find useful stuff there.

One thing was consistent about the expeditions. They hired guards. It was a clear and simple way in for Bee so he took advantage of it. As luck would have it, some guy called Calcelmo was planning a new expedition to a dwemer ruin below the city Markarth. Apparently the guy was old hand at this and had already written several books about the extinct race. The only problem was the fact he scheduled it just before Bee, Yamato and Naruto were supposed to meet. Bee decided to go anyway, since you can never be sure when there will be another chance.

Now, Yamato was hiding his identity so trying to look for him would only make the man's life difficult, so be decided to contact Naruto. He didn't feel like going all the way back into the snowy cities so he paid a courier to be at the meeting place with a letter to Naruto. He first thought about sending one to Winterhold, but this was cheaper and Naruto was sure to be there. That done, Bee took off to Solitude. First he'd have to tell his blacksmithing boss he's taking a side job, then to Markarth.

It was a week later that Bee got to Markarth. His arrival was deceptively innocent. No one payed attention to the redguard with too many swords, not when there were so many people trying to get everyone's attention. Adventurers (and bandits pretending to be adventurers) coming to take part in the expedition tried to make themselves seem more important and skilled than the rest to get the best deal, scholars trying to sound intelligent and important enough to be allowed to accompany the expedition since they could never afford anything similar by themselves, retired soldiers from the last war still wearing somewhat worn legion armor some drunk, others yelling for the hell of it. Guards were trying to be as intimidating as possible to stop troublemakers before they even start making problems and last but not least traders, hawkers and merchants trying to take advantage of the crowd for some quick profits.

In comparison Bee was completely calm. He had certainly seen bigger messes that came with the third ninja war and various chunin exams. Hell, even some festivals had a greater mess than this. For the sheer variety of the crowd, there weren't more than 300 people there. In a way it made sense, since the expedition would be hiring only around 50 people according to the rumors. Only those who believed they stood a chance and the desperate came here.

He bought himself some fried elk, a mug of mead and toured the lively city. Not every part of the city was so filled with crowds, especially the mine/jail in the mountainside. In Killer Bee's mind having a jail inside a city was a security risk made bigger by the fact they gave the inmates pickaxes for digging.

Shaking his head at the idea he saw a stand with a clerk being yelled at by disgruntled adventurers. Bodyguards kept them away and guards kept the peace. Once he was closer he saw that this clerk was the one negotiating about who got guard jobs. Bee applied and was told he wold receive half a percent of non artifact profits from the expedition. Bee didn't care, so he immediately accepted. Some nearby applicants were trying to raise the price so they were angry at Bee, but there was nothing they could do in the city. He suspected some might try making ambushes along the roads leaving the city. Not that any of this worried him, but a good ninja is always prepared since even a rookie could get a lucky kill.

Since the expedition didn't start for another two days he spent the night at the bunk beds provided for those that got the job. Bee tried hitting on a cute vendor girl the next day, but apparently he wasn't the first one that got the idea so she was already stressed and not appreciating his rhymes at all. In fact he had to duck away from getting slapped with a fish. He then wisely backed off and decided to try his luck elsewhere. Somewhere less crowded perhaps. Where he would be more appreciated.

The last day before the expedition everyone was gathered together inside the Understone Keep, specifically the area next to the Hall of the Dead. A scarred and intimidating (to non ninja) Orc in heavy Orichalcium armor was addressing the new recruits.

"All right you lot, the excavation of the caved in area is complete so the expedition can finally go in further. As usual the muscle goes in first to clear the way. You lot are the muscle. We older and proven fighters are the guard. Prove yourselves today and you will start making a name for yourselves. Might even earn some extra coin. Try and steal and you will suffer the consequences." here the orc tried to look more intimidating, but to Bee he just looked seedy "We will be checking the stash of every one leaving, so don't get any ideas. That also means we will need to check your stuff now and make a list of it. The list stays with the city guard."

Now plenty of the 'muscle' group complained as their plans went into smoke. Bee had a couple of sealing scrolls on him so he didn't particularly care about it.

"Since your job is just to clear the way of any defenses, keep in mind you are not supposed to pick up anything you find because the scholars wish to see the place as _intact_ as it can be." Here the orc grumbled to himself "whatever that means" before continuing out loud. The only reason Bee heard him was because of his chakra enhanced hearing. "Also try not to go too far from the main group. Sticking together makes it more likely we will survive."

"After that the orc talked about the Falmer, various traps like the flame throwing ones and lastly the dwemer machinery that still roams and maintains the dead halls. At this point Bee took notes. This was why he came in the first place. Well this and the experience itself.

The next day the group went inside with the guards in the lead until the newly dug hole. After that the 'muscle' group took point. There were 21 men, mer and beast in the 'muscle' group and a bit more among the guards. Immediately in the next room two of them (both retired Nord legionnaires) stated arguing about who was in charge (they both wanted to be). Bee saw one gray Khajiit with white stripes skulk away and decided to follow. The Khajiit ran into a Falmer and tried to kill it with a bow and arrows. His arrow struck the Falmer in the chest and it screamed as it died. Two more Falmer immediately ran in from the next room along with some sort of giant black insect. By the surprised and scared expression of the Khajiit Bee figured out this wasn't a part of his plan so he took out his swords and jumped in front of him. The first Falmer tried to swing his sword at Bee only for him to start frontally flipping at high enough speed he looked like a blur. Two seconds later the Khajiit was staring at one Falmer without a third of his head, a half way cut through the body from the collarbone to the stomach and a hole in the throat. The second one was no better without arms and half a dozen stab woulds bleeding even as he fell to the floor. Only the bug survived Bee's attack and that was because his swords actually got stuck inside it. It certainly wasn't in good health. Before Bee could do more than land on his feet the Khajiit got out of his shock and shot it in its head with an arrow, finishing it.

"Do'Ranaava thinks we can work together, no? Aliki'r fight in front, Do'Ranaava shoot from behind. What do you say?"

Bee grinned as he was picking up the swords from the creature. "Sure thing pal, now do we go on or do we wait for them all?"

"Hmmm, we can wait here while picking the spoils of war. Do'Ranaava thinks the first Falmer is his as well as something from the chaurus. After all, we were warned not to loot the ruins. Nobody said anything about leaving our kills."

Despite their ideas they didn't get a lot out of the expedition. Sometimes the group caught up with them, other times they had to guard the main group as the scholars tried to make sense of the ruins. Bee had no problem with listening to the scholars. In fact he was writing the whole thing down. What was surprising to him was that while no one managed to recreate the combination of metals dwemer used, few even tried to understand how all of the machinery that remained worked. Most assumed only dwemer could understand it. It was a known fact that the metal spiders were the workers as well as the last line of defense. Metal spiders that worked on magic as well as some form of lesser soul.

After the frightening disappearance of the dwemer no one was really willing to try and figure out anything of theirs that involved souls. But Bee was pretty sure the lesser soul was only the power source. Unlike the soul experimenting event that ended the race, the spider workers existed for a long time before it. Sadly any functioning drones attacked anyone that might try and observe them. A hunch he got while thinking about them (and waiting for the scholars to finish with a room) was that the workers might notice the soul inside whatever intruders they might recognize. He decided to ask his new pal about it.

"Yo, Do'Ranaava!" the Khajiit looked at him "How do these spiders and the rest of the machines tell friend from foe?"

"Do'Ranaava does not know. In fact Do'Ranaava believes no one living does…Did you know that that is one of the things that made Calcelmo famous? He found a workshop made for working on the spiders. Usually such places are rigged to blow up should they be found. No one knows how Calcelmo did it. Some rumors say he made a pact with Hermaeus Mora, but Do'Ranaava does not think so. He seems too sane for that."

"Hearing what they were talking about a nearby Imperial joined the conversation. "Hah, haven't you two heard about his staff?"

"No, what staff?" Bee asked

"The dwemer staff he found. The one made for controlling the spider constructs. With one of those you could surely…"

He was interrupted by a cough and the three turned to look at Calcemo who was looking irritated at the man "If you could stop spreading misleading rumors that can get people killed, that would be greatly appreciated. Honestly! First off I found that control rod there in that workshop, secondly it only works on one worker spider and thirdly it's time you get back to work!"

"Right-o Calcelmo, we'll clear the way to the right. No need for you to fight." Bee said pointing at one of the doors they didn't open yet.

"Hmph, see that you do!" Calcelmo said and walked away.

"The Imperial was the most eager to get out of there having been almost yelled at by his boss. Sadly, that meant his death as a spinning blade jumped from the floor and opened his guts. Bee managed to pull him away and used healing hands on him, but it was too little too late. It wasn't the first death during the expedition and it wouldn't be the last.

By the time they all came back, there were only 7 remaining from the 'muscle' group and 9 guards and two scholars died when they accidentally made a lot of noise that alerted nearby Falmer and automatons who charged in locking everyone there in a messy three way fight.

Once too many died they decided to call it a day. The 'muscle' group as well as the guards carried everything not bolted down for the scholars. Calcelmo in particular had the idea of opening a museum right there in the keep.

Being polite and patient with all those people, not to mention calm during the fighting built up some stress in Bee. Normally it was the fights themselves that stressed him out, now it was that he had to hide his greatest powers and let people die almost meaninglessly. He, Naruto and Yamato talked a lot about revealing their abilities and decided it was best to learn about the world before they do so. As they now knew more about the world, they were certain plenty of organizations, religious groups and others would never leave them alone should their power be known.

Now that this job is over, he would have to go see Naruto about weather or not the meeting place or time changed, not to mention emergencies. All these tedious distractions were eating too much of his time. He would have to ask Naruto to show him the shadow clone. All in all Bee had some steam to blow off. Do'Ranaava noticed this and talked him into getting drunk tonight.

They went to the Silver blood inn a good bit before nightfall. Still the place was packed as people rushed to reserve rooms for the night or even just a warm meal before hitting the road. Do'Ranaava and Bee just decided to have a drink and wait for it all to blow over.

Somewhere between the fifth and sixth mead for Bee a man came in the inn filled with snow. He talked about a storm outside making the trip too dangerous during the night. That man was only the first. Soon enough almost everyone came back and crowded the inn. Among them was a Breton man in a dark robe walked in carrying a small barrel.

As the crowds kept the innkeeper and his family extremely busy Bee stopped trying to get him to get the two another mead. That man noticed this and walked to their table with his barrel.

"Hello gentlemen! Would you mind if I joined you?"

"Nah, It's cool man, but every chair's been taken by now." Bee said

"Not to worry" he said and put his barrel on the floor before sitting on it "My name's Sam by the way, Sam Guevenne."

"I'm Killer Bee."

"Do'Ranaava is pleased to meet you Sam Guevenne. What brings you to Markarth."

"Ah, you see I was going to try and sell my own special brew to the owner of the inn, but he seems busy at the moment. I have a sample barrel here with me and more back with my caravan. You see, while I like both Honninbrew's and Black-Birar's mead, I think there's room in the market for more variety. This is strong stuff." He said patting his barrel.

"Really? Perhaps the innkeeper could give us a taste when you sell it to him." Do'Ranaava said.

"Oh, I'm not selling this bit, the stuff back in the caravan certainly, but this is a sample to make him more…'open' to negotiations." Sam said with a smirk.

"Hah, you sound like a man with a plan Sam" Bee said

"Oh, it's not all that. By the way, if you don't mind me asking… why are there so many people in Markarth today? It seems absolutely crowded!"

"You do not know? Do'Ranaava is a bit surprised. Talk of the expedition reached far and wide. Well, whatever. Today was the day of Calcelmo's expedition to the dwemer ruins below the city. Many came here to apply, or take advantage of the crowds. Do'Ranaava has seen at least five different pickpockets at work today."

A loud crash behind Sam took away their attention. Two groups were at the edge of a fight over the last of the inn's mead and rooms.

"Hey Sam" Bee asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you care if you sell your drink to inn directly, or would it be ok to sell it to this bunch to calm their nerves for the night?"

Sam grew a megawatt smile in an instant. "That's an excellent idea Mr. Killer Bee!"

"Just call me Bee." Bee said with a smile and got up before it became too late to stop a fight.

"OI, YOU LOT OVER THERE!" He yelled.

Both sides of the tense crowd turned to him

"Waddya want?" Yelled one.

"My friend here has some extra drinks he was bringing to sell to the inn. If you all calm down, we can buy it directly form him, cheaper!"

Soon enough both sides agreed a truce with mead was better than a fight without it. They and plenty of others from the inn pooled their coin and bought it all from Sam. He was grinning the entire time challenging people to drinking contests and generally improving the mood across the inn. The innkeeper seeing this had no real issues as there was both merriment and an avoided messy fight. He only lamented not buying the stuff himself faster.

Once the people carried the larger barrels inside, one by one they were emptied and used as chairs, desks and so on. As everyone was drinking, no one noticed how quickly they were getting drunk. When one guy returned from taking a leak outside in the water canal he told everyone that the storm ended. Only now no one wanted to leave just yet. Do'Ranaava drank till he was silly and delirious, so Bee decided this wasn't the place to leave him at. Mostly because people were getting really crazy here. He never really noticed he was swaying or rapping under breath. Sam met them with some bread and cheese near the way out.

"Hey Bee, Do'Ranaava. Where are you going? The party's just started!"

"Gotta go Sam, even though you're the man. I gotta mission to plan."

Do'Ranaava was hanging over Bee's shoulder, so he just threw up behind Bee.

"LET'S ROLL!" Bee yelled and started running up the wall to the temple. That REALLY got Sam's attention so he quickly followed. Bee learned lock-picking when he was young for getting out of trouble. It didn't fail him now when he used the skill to open Markarth's temple of Dibella.

Do'Ranaava woke up noticing his strange predicament and did the reasonable thing. He threw up again. Then he asked Bee.

"Where are we?"

"Shh, were sneakin'n ya fool! Is that drool?"

"What? No, I threw up! It's not even on you… Where are we sneaking Bee?"

"Temple of Dibella."

"Oh, ok."

That's when Sam caught up. "So, uh, Bee. Why are you sneaking in circles there?"

"Shh, yer too loud Sam. I'm on a mission. If they find me I might be put out of commission."

"What's your mission?"

"Gotta learn about the Aedra, Daedra, what makes them tick, so they don't hit me with a brick."

"Uh, come again?"

"Gotta learn how not to step on their toes so they don't become my foes."

"Oh. I got that. And you decided to do this by breaking in Dibella's temple?" Sam said with almost a giggle.

"Yeah, you got a better idea?" Bee put Do'Ranaava down as he was complaining about getting dizzy.

"Well sure my friend! It's simple. The Aedra all power or protect something, you know they have a cause they stand behind. So long as you don't endanger what they hold dear, you're golden. In fact if you help them out, they might _bestow_ some sort of blessing or whatever on you. The Daedra are more complicated, but simpler at the same time. They have more fixed personalities, for instance Sheagorath is and always will be mad. You can't really prepare for him. Malacath on the other hand is the Price, if you can call him that, of the spurned and the ostracized if he tried to get even with everyone who tried to ostracize someone he'd never get anything done, so you can mostly ignore him if you don't run in one of his projects or tests. Meridia on the other hand is one of the kindest of Daedric Princes. She despises the undead and frequently helps people destroy them. So long as you're not a necromancer trying to create long lasting undead, or an undead yourself she approves of you."

Bee just stood still for a few moments crouched next to a babbling Do'Ranaava who was chewing on a flower he got from somewhere, then he took out his notebook and started writing this down quickly. When he was done, he asked Sam to continue, which he did.

Once Sam and Bee were done and Do'Ranaava became almost lucid, but far from sober, Sam wanted to continue the party. Seeing as he gave him some golden info, Bee was all for it. Still he remembered to seal away his notebook, just in case.

"You know what would make this party more fun?" Bee said

"More drinks?" Sam asked

"And more people." Do'Ranaava added

"Heh, yeah, but I was thinking about fireworks."

"What are those?" Do'Ranaava asked

Bee just grinned before saying "You leave that to me buddy. You can see if you can get some more drinks for the party"

"Now you're talking!" said Sam "I'll handle getting more drinks!"

" Do'Ranaava thinks the only way you could get more people is if you wake everyone up."

"The fireworks will wake 'em. You just get ready."

So Sam got more booze from somewhere and drew the blind drunk crowd out from the silver blood inn, Do'Ranaava got some vendors to set up stalls near the various residential places with Sam's drinks through some bribes. No one was really sure whose money he was using. When asked he said "Do'Ranaava had some tough times when younger, had to learn to pick pockets. Whose pockets you ask. Do'Ranaava doesn't really remember anymore."

Only half an hour later, Bee and his ink clones managed to get some fireworks set up and since he was drunk as all hell he hid in the mountains and used the eight tails power to make a biju ball to start off the fireworks. As soon as it was in the air, he changed back and ran to the top of the guard tower. Then he yelled.

"WHEEEEE!" The drunk crowd roared and then the sky trembled as an explosion bigger than anything Nirn had witnessed happened.

Panicked people soon ran out of their homes in nightclothes, guards with swords in underwear a bug eyed yarl and many more came to the streets. The vendors started yelling about the drinks, The drunks started grabbing bewildered people and singing with them, the guards started organizing themselves and then the fireworks started.  
Bee made them by making a bunch of explosive notes that blew up with different special effects. It was his pride and joy in sealing when he was a teenager. As an adult his new pride of seal-work was his voice amplifying seal.

"YO YO, KILLER BEE IS IN THE HOOOUSEEEEE!"

It was pandemonium. Sheogorath appeared out of nowhere and started turning the organized, calm people into various animals or daedra. Sam was laughing his ass off. Do'Ranaava was unsuccessfully hitting on a female Khajiit he found, but he was so drunk he didn't notice he was failing.

"I AM THE KILLIN' MACHINE,

MY RHYMES ARE EVERGREEN

IN A BATTLE I'M MEAN,

MY BLADES'WITH A BRIGHT BLUE SHEEN

I WILL AIM FOR YOUR SPLEEN

YOU STILL HAVENT SEEN

WHAT BEING MY ENEMY WOULD MEAN, YO YO!

GIVE IT UP FOR SAM! THANKS TO HIM WE CAN DRINK TONIGHT,

THERE'S ENOUGH SO NO NEED TO FIGHT,

LET'S PARTY TILL THE SUNRISE

GO CRAZY LIKE YOU ALWAYS FANTASIZE

EVERYBODY HERE NOW IMPROVISE

I WANNA SE YOU DANCE SIDEWISE

WE BRING TO YOU ALL TAMRIEL'S FIRST FIREWORKS SHOW

THIS PARTY MAKES THE SKY GLOW!

EVEN IF YOU WON'T REMEMBER CAUSE YOU'RE TOO DRUNK

DON'T LET THAT GET YOU IN A FUNK.

JUST LIVE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER LIVED BEFORE

BECAUSE WHO KNOWS HOW LONG YOU HAVE FOR SURE!

WEATHER YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH A WAR

SEEN YOUR SHARE OF BLOODY GORE

LEAVE THAT BEHIND FOR THE DANCE FLOOR

AND GET READY FOR THE JAM

WELCOME TO THE..."

Bee would have continued rapping, save for the arrows heading his way. The local guards still didn't get organized, but still managed to take offense to his loud rapping during a crisis. He decided to be like a ninja and blend in with the crowd. Very easy to do that seeing as how the crowd was a complete mess. Dancing and singing and fighting and screaming and several bards playing different tunes and guards trying to break up the dangerous looking fights, more people getting drunk, even a guy trying to write down everything that's happening quickly. Bee found Do'Ranaava, who seemed to have had a drink poured on him pretty easily considering the mess. Sam waved them off as he was having too much fun here so they ignored him and decided a tactical retreat is in order.

Sadly being drunk makes tactical retreats seem too boring, so Bee quickly broke into the guard tower and got himself a uniform. Fully dressed as a guard he took Do'Ranaava as a fake prisoner to the keep where some wildlife was wandering. Bee got himself some seemingly rare books and trinkets, while Do'Ranaava mostly went for jewels. Once they had enough they left a few messages for the jarl. Nothing too mature, or meaningful. One of the chicken was clucking at them menacingly, but both dismissed it as the alchohol's fault. It was the jarl's guard captain that Sheagorath turned.

Do'Ranaava woke up with a killer headache in a mine shaft. It turned out to be in a place called Karthwasten. As he started to remember last night a quiet dread settled in. The half strangled and choked sounds he was making woke Bee up.

"...Well shit." Bee said. Do'Ranaava just nodded with a hand covering his eyes.

Tenzo heard and saw the bijuu bomb go off in the distance. It was only because he was so high on the mountain that he could see it from this distance. His senses do not reach from him to where the blast came from so he didn't know if he should rush to him or not. He wasn't the only one who noticed. All of the Graybeards were soon up, using their sign language to communicate. By now Tenzo understood most of the signs and from what he saw they were debating asking Paarthunax (he got the word master, but he heard about the master who lives on the mountain's peak earlier) to go check it out. In the end their desire not to get involved won out. Ulfric was not nearly so calm. In fact he was only recently at Markarth fighting some group called the forsworn.

In the end Tenzo could do nothing but rub his eyes and sigh. Bee should be able to fight off almost anything. In fact he was stronger than Tenzo. Seeing as how no more explosions were happening only two things could have happened. One, Bee won and no longer needs help and two, Bee lost and is beyond help. By the time Tenzo crossed the distance days would have passed anyway and he would be exhausted from the trip.

Naruto was asleep when he heard rumble and a noticed flash in the sky. Thinking it's just distant thunder he turned away from the window and scratched his ass before falling asleep again.

* * *

Next morning Tenzo was up early working on the shout Feim, or fade, the first word of the become ethereal shout. It honestly reminded him of the ability the masked man calling himself Madara had. This ability was obviously inferior as he couldn't choose when to stop being ethereal, nor was it hard to miss when he was using it. Still, it was a very nice ability to have

Most started studying the unrelenting force shout as it is the easiest to learn. Tenzo however wanted to use that as a test for weather he can study the shouts on his own or not. His excuse to the Graybeards was that Ulfric was learning that too, but they had told him that Ulfric had apparently been at the monastery before. According to them he had had some unfinished business in Skyrim so they made an exception and let him go finish it before returning. Not willing to change his mind, Tenzo annoyed the Graybeards, but they decided to indulge him until he saw his mistake. They were very passive aggressive like that.

All shouts started from learning the sound, followed by the written form and then people stalled. The third step was the most difficult as it required the user to insert his soul's force into the shout, forcing it to become reality. Understanding was a crucial component of the third step. Understanding the concept of the word. After that the process was repeated with two more words and they were connected into one shout. Fifth and last came meditation on the deeper intricacies of the word. For example, the texts Tenzo found about the become etheral shout claimed that the user had to fill himself with the meaning of the fading, temporary nature of human life while keeping in mind the enduring soul that remains forever.

Tenzo could do that. All ANBU were taught how to remove their killing intent as much as possible for sneak attack was similar enough he thought it could work well enough. So with confidence in the later steps of the process, having already done the earlier ones, Tenzo focused all he could into imbuing the idea of fading from reality, while still being in contact with it to his shout. He had to really concentrate to not feel silly as he was shouting Feim repeatedly next to the monastery. The quiet observation of the Graybeards wasn't helping him. He knew they had little else for entertainment here but that didn't make enduring his embarrassment any easier. Ulfric was having similar problems, but unlike Tenzo who just wanted to go do this elsewhere and alone Ulfric was loosing his temper.

The Graybeards occasionally offered advice on how to picture the feeling more thoroughly. Advice like "Feel yourself sway weightlessly" or "try thinking of the vast emptiness of the deep seas" came their way.

In the end Tenzo did it. For him it was the memories of hiding in shadows with root ninja that did it. Root ninja were supposed to feel nothing and suppressing their selves was easy for them while putting the mission in the first place. Like that he put his everlasting soul in place of the mission while suppressing his body. It took a while for him to think of that since it was a long time since he left root. Unlocking his potential with that key might have helped too. Ulfric was livid. Not at Tenzo so much as at the fact that despite his seniority and extra attention from the Graybeards he was 'loosing'. He wordlessly screamed at the air before storming off.

"Peace Ulfric." Angier shouted at his retreating figure "Bronn had a remarkable success and that is in no way your failure. Try meditating some more on the word and if it does not help, we can pass along our understanding of the word."

"I know master Angier and am sorry for losing my temper. It's just so damn irritating making no progress!" ~sigh~ "I'll go meditate now." he said and went inside leaving Tenzo and the Graybeards out in the courtyard. For a moment there was a stillness among them with only the noise of the wind interrupting it.

"Um, excuse me." Tenzo said trying to get their attention.

"OH! Oh, yes, how careless of me." Angier was startled from staring at the monastery door any longer "Congratulations on your success young Bronn. Truly you have done well and you can now choose weather to move onto another word, or complete the words of the shout you already know." He now looked at Tenzo expectantly.

"Well, I will, but I have a question if you don't mind."

"Not at all. Ask away."

"What did you mean by passing along your understanding of the word?"

"Ah, that is fairly straight forward without being simple. One method of testing weather someone mastered a shout or not is to see their ability to pass on the functioning understanding of the shout onto others. It is a technique that uses the power and concept of the shout without the actual shout onto another person. I daresay when you've mastered the Feim shout, you will be able to tech it to anyone with this. The only requirements your pupil would have is the understanding of the written dragon language and the knowledge of the sound of the shout. Then the pupil could simply recreate the feeling of the concept you gave him."

Hearing this stunned Tenzo "Wait" he said "Why don't you do this all the time? Is there some sort of danger involved?"

"Only the danger of foolishness." Argnier replied solemnly "If one does not take the hard path to learn wisdom, one does not attain it at all. Wisdom, after all, is the most important character trait we try to teach here after all. Before the Way of the Voice people could still use shouts, but they used them unwisely." He finished in a sort of self satisfied way.

Tenzo had sort of tuned him out when he started talking about wisdom. Wisdom to the Graybeards was the same as pacifism. Living as a ninja made pacifism seem a lot like suicidal behavior to him so he couldn't really sympathize with the Graybeards' way. Suddenly some of the written history he had read of the time before Jurgen Windcaller made sense. People much younger than the Graybeards had used the shouts with great proficiency. Surely this meant they had learned another way. This way. The most important bit here, to Tenzo, was that he could quickly teach Naruto and Bee, and they could teach him any shouts they learned in return. And a means of teaching like this had to be researched. There was no way of knowing what the limitations might be. He now had a new objective here.


End file.
